Entertainment

Is 'The Other Woman' Not Safe for Men?

Every week, Mashable presents “Let’s Talk About …,” a Monday-morning look back at the biggest WTF moment from the weekend’s most talked-about new movie. If you haven’t seen the film, be warned: This doesn’t just contain spoilers — it's all SPOILERS.

This week: Let's talk about The Other Woman

Whoever said only young men drive movie ticket sales had it all wrong, the latest evidence being The Other Woman, which took over No. 1 from Captain America: The Winter Soldier this weekend.

A whopping 75% of the audience was women for the Fox comedy that destroyed expectations with $24.7 million at the box office. But this isn’t about all the honeys who makin’ money.

This is about the other 25%, who were hiding in the dark confines of the movie theater, lured in by their girlfriends and wives – or more likely, promises of a bikini-clad Kate Upton.

Make no mistake. These men were as brave as they were few.

Going in, there’s no way they would have known for sure: Is The Other Woman a chick flick about female camaraderie, or dangerous territory, rife with male abuse captured on screen? Is it revenge gone too far, or hilarious date-night entertainment?

It was, after all, a film that featured:

— Sneaking estrogen pills into shakes, resulting in “manopause”— Brushing a dog with man’s toothbrush and then washing it in toilet— Replacing shampoo bottle contents with hair remover— Spiking perfectly good whisky with an intense laxative— Tricking a man into threesome — with a drag queen

Think over your day: Maybe it was a big mistake to compliment your attractive female co-worker’s taste in music. Maybe you stared at a scantily dressed passerby a moment too long. Maybe you drooled too much when Kate Upton emerged onscreen in her bikini.

Maybe you shouldn’t have asked for extra butter on your popcorn? Perhaps this movie is all a trap. Bad things might happen, fellas.

The movie has been called many names, “anti-men propaganda” among them. Male audiences are proven to be particularly touchy on the subject of infidelity. Women do it just as often, they cry. Maybe so. But women seem to be better at avoiding getting caught. Nicki Minaj’s character, who has cheated her way into a seemingly happy marriage, quotes her mom’s words of wisdom: “Selfish people live longer.”

What’s refreshing, though, is that after an initial shock (eg. “You had sex with my husband 50 times? Don’t you have a job or hobbies?”), instead of bringing out the claws and competing over a man, the women bond over the shared experience of being victims of cheating.

It’s a far cry from the sentimentality of The Notebook, but one can’t help but wonder if director Nick Cassavetes’ male friends are no longer on speaking terms with him. Or are they happy to take it with a grain of salt and laugh along?

Perhaps it’s best to follow Diaz’s advice to Leslie Mann: “Cry on the inside, like a man.”

Katherine Brodsky is a freelance entertainment writer whose work has appeared in Variety, Entertainment Weekly, USA Weekend, Canadian Screenwriter Magazine, MovieMaker Magazine, The Independent, Stage Directions, and many other publications. She has interviewed a diverse range of intriguing personalities, including Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and Pulitzer winners.

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